Goblet

Gorham Manufacturing Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mid-nineteenth century witnessed an efflorescence of creativity in the American silver industry, fueled by the burgeoning middle class’s increasing demand for refined luxury goods. Silversmiths devoted considerable time and creative energy to generating an endless variety of new designs and patterns. During the 1860s and 1870s silver flatware ornamented with portrait medallions inspired by antique coins and cameos enjoyed widespread popularity, with virtually every American silversmith producing their own proprietary "medallion" pattern. Gorham Manufacturing Company’s designer George Wilkinson patented a medallion flatware pattern in 1864, and the quantity and variety of surviving silver in this pattern attest to its success. Medallions from this flatware pattern ornament the goblet as well as a tea set (.1-.3) and toast rack (.4) in the American Wing’s collection. The goblet bears the marks of a Boston retailer, Bigelow Bros. & Kennard and is engraved, "Mary S. Lackland /from / Henry & Emilie Kayser / August 23rd 1865." Research has yet to be done to identify the recipient and the donors; however, they were likely Bostonians for whom silver ornamented with fashionable classical medallions offered evidence of their taste and sophistication.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art